buttons!

The orange cardigan is finally finished! The making-up really dragged - I hate sewing button bands on - but I finally did it last weekend, and then sewed on four bright, shiny orange buttons. They are out of my mum's button bag, of buttons she collected before I was born, so they're proper, vintage 70s:
When my mum died last year, I inherited her box of spare buttons from the clothes she's bought over the last ten or fifteen years, but also her bag of buttons from she was sewing and knitting in the 70s and early 80s. And, since I was having a button round-up, my grandma decided it was time I had her button box. Many of these buttons are ones my grandma inherited from her mother, who was a tailor, meaning that some of them must be from the 30s and 20s or earlier. Very few of them are expensive or smart: there are a couple of beautiful big discs of mother-of-pearl, but the vast majority are made of cheap, old, brittle plastic. They have been snipped off coats and jackets and shirts and pyjamas and cardigans which have gone to holes: there is a purple cord-covered one that I recognise as being from the dressing gown my grandma had when I was tiny. We also used to be allowed to play with these buttons when we were little, and used them as play-money. Some of them still have stickers on saying, "50p" and "£9" and "£7" in my brother's round and elaborately careful writing. There are also lots of huge brown ones, and you only have to glance at to imagine the 1950s and 60s wool coats they came off. You'd need a wonderfully textured chunky tweed to offset thhose smooth brown semi-spherical buttons with the 4cm diameter.

So, I am trying to find uses for as many of these buttons as possible, rather than buying more. Those bright shiny orange plastic ones suit my 1950s orange cardigan wonderfully, and I'm ever so pleased with it. Still not quite finished blocking, however, so no pics of me wearing it yet!

* * *

I've used some of my grandma's buttons for my pink 50s cardigan. These are little pale pink plastic pearl buttons, which fit this cardigan beautifully:
I am so, so pleased with this cardigan. It hasn't turned out how I expected - it's much smaller and more fitted in the pattern - although that may of course be the model's corset. However, my colours are much nicer, and the slightly larger and looser shape has coincided with ... slightly oversized Fair-Isle cardigans having a major moment. Who saw that coming? So this cardigan - not really oversized, but just slightly relaxed - has suddenly rocketed to the top of my wardrobe crushes.

I LOVE the Fair-Isle. And have I mentioned how lovely the Rowan 4-ply wool is? It's practically silken, and yet so warm. Blooming premium-brand yarns, being all worth-the-money and shit.

More photos of the lovely pink cardigan:

Pink and ginger

Hurray! Janette's Rare Yarns came up with 8 balls of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan in Ginger, to go with the light pink I've already got. Orange and pale pink will be beautiful, right?

Stripey jumper

And here are my plans for the rest of the year. First of all, I've just bought some Debbie Bliss Alpaca Silk Aran, to replace my lovely arm-warmers that I lost two years ago:


They were in Teal, but this time it's Navy. And, I've just realised, they were DK and the yarn I've just bought is Aran, so they will probably be a bit thicker and not quite as long. Hm.

My second plan was for a jumper. I haven't knitted a jumper since the teal one which I finished in 2008, because jumpers aren't generally my style so much. However, they are everywhere on the catwalks for this season, and I love the big-jumper-and-pencil-skirt thing that I've seen in a few magazines. So I had planned a big pink jumper:

Top-down raglan (of course - I don't knit any other way if I can help it!), ribbed, straight-sided. But then I got 500g of Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Astrakhan on ebay:

I am not usually one for the crazy textured knits, but that's because they're usually polyester. This is gorgeous - a pain in the hole to knit with, I expect (I've only swatched so far), but incredibly soft and probably very, very warm. So I've moved away from the idea of ribbed, and also I think I like the idea of it being a bit more cropped and blousy. A bit more like:

But this, of course, means I have to find some beige or orange Debbie Bliss Cashmerino Asktrakhan from somewhere, and it's been discontinued. Wish me luck...

Orange cardigan

And here is project 2 - another 4-ply vintage cardigan pattern from the same car-boot sale.

Link to scan of pattern.

It's been knitted very tightly on a 3.5mm needle, because I want it to be very light but hardwearing. As expected, I managed to finish the knitting very precisely at the end of summer - tsk! However, it’s wool and bamboo, so I’m still expecting to get some wear out of it over the autumn and winter.



It's a fairly straight-forward construction - back, 2x front, 2x sleeves. Everything has now been finished and blocked:


I modified the arms substantially, because I want them to have a slight puff in them, so instead of doing a straight decrease every 2 rows, I made them more curved. The yarn is also lovely - Sirdar Baby Bamboo, in a colour called Tigger! As I said, I've been knitting it very tightly, but it's stood up to that and hopefully will be good and long-lasting.

Will probably start sewing it up tonight, so fingers crossed it fits!

marybe, just maybe, I am back

Perhaps it's time to resuscitate this blog? I have some exciting knitting coming to an end, anyway, and some exciting plans for the next few months. This is what's blocking upstairs:

Dolman-sleeved cardigan

- a 1950s pattern that I got at a car-boot sale in my parents' village. I love this cardigan - and my colourway is much nicer than the one in the picture!I spent most of winter 2010/11 knitting it. It's an extraordinary shape - knitted from right wrist to left wrist in one piece, then picked up and Fair-Isle knitted around the neckline and front, then 4” of rib on the bottom, and then a separate button band made and sewn on. I finished the main body in February or so, blocked that, then sewed up the sides and completed the colourwork and the ribbing in in the winter, but put it away halfway through sewing the button band on because it was April and I obviously wasn't going to wear it in the summer, and have just got it out again and finished sewing it up. It's now having a second block.

IF it fits, it’s totally Dior New Look, with a high neck and sloping shoulders. I really have no idea yet whether it not it will, though. And if it doesn't, well, it’s been a beautiful knit. The Rowan 4-ply is absolutely gorgeous - pure wool, but such good quality that it has a really silky finish. I’ve also learned a lot from doing the Fair Isle. I also have all the Fair-Isle colours left over, so I will probably try and make a tank top or gloves or something to use some of it up.

Really, really hope it fits and works!

interknittent

Oh hello, internets! I'm sorry it's been so long. Since I last posted here, I've completed my PhD; been viva'd and graduated; worked as a medical secretary for eight months and then as a training officer for six months; civilised my lady; moved from Leeds to Manchester; and knitted four and a half cardigans, one jumper, two gloves, and a ... babydoll sort of thing. The only one I seem to have photos of is the last, and fittingly, it was the first completed. Here it is:



It is silly and fripperaneous and I do adore it. I actually took these pictures just over a year ago (my hair doesn't look like that any more!), and I currently wear it at least once a week, over a dark blue or grey long-sleeved t-shirt and a slim fitting skirt or trousers. It's a madey-uppy top-down raglan. I based the puffed sleeves on the pattern for Zephyrstyle's Rusted Root, which my girlfriend has. Then I added a stitch about 50% more stitches just below the bust, so it has this silly little babydoll shape to it. At the bottom there's a bit of texture created by alternating a row of garter stitch with a row of moss stitch and then another row of garter stitch. The yarn is a pure wool one from Kingcraig, and it's fantastically warm: perfect for a short-sleeved top worn over long skinny sleeves. And the buttons are from Samuel Taylor's in Leeds, and just gorgeous:


I'll try and have a modelling session soon and get pictures of a few of the others!

place holder

Apologies, dear readers, if there are any of you still out there. I should have done this earlier, but summer happened rather fast.

I am thirteen days off handing in my thesis, at which point a slightly more regular service will be resumed. See you in October!